Acute Osmotic Imbalance
by ricca
Summary: In which the Doctor suffers and Donna tries to help. A little bit funny and a little bit sad. Oneshot, fluff.


_A/N: I rediscovered this fandom recently, and absolutely adore it. Don't you? Good! I wasn't sure about a Doctor/Donna fic, but then I read so very many where Donna gets hurt and the Doctor puts her back together, and not nearly enough of the reverse. All errors are 100% mine. Allons-y and all standard disclaimers apply._

* * *

"It's a cramp, isn't it?"

He couldn't see her from where he stood, rubbing the side of his neck and trying to focus against the inconvenient discomfort as his TARDIS thrummed and suffered an ionic overload. He didn't have to see her to know she'd be standing in that infuriating way she had, arms crossed across her chest, giving him that Look she saved for moments when she found herself dealt a winning hand. "It is not!" The Doctor protested, gripping the levers on the console before him to stop himself from trying to rub his aching back. "Time Lords don't get… cramps."

His infuriating companion rolled her eyes and snorted inelegantly. "Sure it ain't; it's just some strange Martian twinge you got making you sore and snappy." His strained, awkward posture didn't escape her notice, nor did his white knuckled grip on the doohickeys that made up his spaceship's control system. "I can help you." She tried to gentle her tone and the words tumbled clumsily into the silence.

"Not now, Donna." He let the chastisement escape through gritted teeth and regretted the words immediately after, coaxing his unhappy blue box through a turbulent personal problem.

That phrase cut her to the bone; she knew she wasn't important. That she was useless, old, unpleasant and bad tempered, again old news. The world knew it could dismiss Donna Noble and all she'd do is shout and say rude things. Then she'd go away and they'd be free of her. But she hadn't ever expected to hear that from the Doctor. That wasn't merely weird, it was out of character. She bit down her own pain and approached the TARDIS' console cautiously where the Doctor worked frenetically.

The TARDIS heightened thrumming faded into her soft background hum as she stabilized, and the Doctor turned his attention to the diagnostic gizmos anchored sporadically around the central pillar. Dozens of possibilities were considered and dismissed in moments. "Not brachts, not the slummity yump; what are you, you nasty little thing?"

Donna winced in sympathy and lunged to catch her Spaceman as another twinge bent him double. "It's a cramp. It's a bloody cramp you tit. Now sit down!" She threw an arm around his waist and half dragged him to the nearest seat.

His protests fell on deaf ears and the Doctor found himself dumped unceremoniously on a bench. "I suppose it might be an acute osmotic imbalance exacerbated by strenuous activity and calcium deficiency."

"You mean a cramp." Donna scowled and dragged a stool to her friend's side. "Now lie down, take your jacket off, and shut it. Ah, I said. No talking, more complying with Doctor Donna." She cracked a small smile at her own joke, and helped the Doctor slide stiffly out of his jacket. She turned up her shirt sleeves as he situated himself as comfortably as he could. The enormity of it all struck her as she slowly moved her hands towards him. This wasn't just one of the girls at the office, or some bloke after a football match. This was a Time Lord. Her best friend. She didn't know anything about Time Lord physiology, what if she only made it worse? What if she hurt him?

"Donna? Is everything all right?" The Doctor tried to crane his head to look up at her, but froze the motion halfway at a threatening feeling radiating into his neck.

"Yeah," Donna gave herself a vigorous mental shake and gently lowered her hands onto the stretch of white cotton beside her. He was cool beneath her fingers, cool and hard, muscle fibers swollen and warm around the site of the discomfort, tense and drawn everywhere else. He was a mess, and she needed to be careful. Delicately, she mapped the anatomy before her, trying to build a complete picture before honing in on the source of the Doctor's pain. She placed her hands on either side of his left latissimus muscle, or what she had to assume the Time Lord equivalent was, and felt him flinch and tense further. "I've done this loads of time, now relax."

That struck him as rather useless advice at this particular moment; how was he supposed to relax when he felt like this and a crazy Earth girl was about to perform some unknown and probably painful action upon his person? "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Donna smiled at the back of his head fondly, working small circles from the center of the muscle outwards with a feathery touch. "One of the hazards of hunching over a keyboard all day. If you're not careful you can get a nasty twinge. You'll be glad to know I'm a real pro at fixing it." Cautiously, she applied a little more pressure.

It felt odd, whatever she was doing. Uncomfortable, but under her ministrations something was starting to ease. "It feels better now; you can stop if you like." He could feel her frown return.

"I'll stop when I'm done, Spaceman, and not a minute before." Donna informed her patient haughtily, sweeping wider circled around the entirety of the inflamed area. It felt slightly more like a muscle and less like a bag of gravel. She moved outwards and upwards, digging her fingers in as time passed and the Doctor gave no sign that she was inflicting any damage upon him.

Slowly but relentlessly she worked across the expanse of his back, up his spine and out to his shoulders, returning often to the beginning to ensure her good work stayed done. The Doctor started to protest as his companion raised herself out of her seat to apply an inordinate amount of pressure to his shoulder, only for something to settle and a tightness drained out of him, leaving him melted and compliant.

Shoulders, back, neck, shoulders, neck, and up his scalp she worked until her arms her tired and the Doctor practically radiated serenity. "That'll do you well enough for now, I suppose." Donna stretched and smiled down at the sleepy alien sprawled before her. "Better?"

He liked her satisfied smile, and returned it with one of his own. "Thank you, Donna."


End file.
